at kind to take
place in the islands, the exercises were received with great favor,
and were attended and enjoyed by all the dignitaries, and prelates,
and by a great concourse of other people. Divine worship, moreover,
was notably increased upon the completion of the church--which, in
its construction and unusual design, proved to be very beautiful. It
was constructed on the model of the church of Jesus in our house of
the professed at Rome, although considerably inferior to that. This
church was dedicated to the glorious St. Anne, the ceremony taking
place on her feast-day in the year fifteen hundred and ninety-six,
when an image of her was piously set up, and the most holy sacrament
brought from the old church with great solemnity and devotion. The
chapel of our Lady was placed, as in the church at Rome, on the
gospel side; and in it her image was set up with an elegant reredos,
in the devout presence of many Spaniards and Indians. In the other
chapel, on the epistle side which is on the side next the house,
and joined to the sacristy, were placed the holy relics, which at
the instance of the Catholic king our lord, and the urgent request
of Father Alonso Sanchez, were donated by the Apostolic See and had
arrived in the previous year. The tabernacle in which these relics
now repose had already been constructed and finished; it embraces
the whole width of the chapel. It is of an incorruptible wood which
they call in those parts molave. [70] It is adorned by eight columns,
four on a side, grouped in a square, with base and pedestals which
sustain, higher up, its architrave, frieze, and cornice, with finials
and handsome architectural designs. Between the columns there are five
distinctly-marked compartments, two small ones on each side and a large
one in the center--all of them of like design and exquisite proportion,
with finely carved doors and inlaid work, with cavities in which the
holy relics are preserved with great propriety and honor. The color of
the whole work externally is black--partly natural, on account of the
quantities of ebony that it contains, which is very abundant in those
regions, and partly derived from the varnish which is used to imitate
that wood. The mouldings, outlines, pinas, [71] and floriations are
gilded, and there are other ornaments of gold and ivory. The altar is
below, with its two steps at the height of the pedestals which support
the columns. In the spaces between the columns, on bot